Blackblade 19.0 - Uneasy Alliances
After spending the night in Hikon City, the group prepared to leave once more. Before rounding up everyone, Raiot went off on his own to the postal office, where he used their services to give a Sending to Lord Miro, informing him of the mistake Raito had unwittingly made in collecting the castle's records and asking if he would do the honourable thing and return them. Miro agreed to this; Raito left the boxes of papers, reserved seeds and gold in a hotel room before heading to the castle gate where Miro had agreed to meet him. Their meeting was brief: after a curt greeting, Raito handed over the key and location, the pair exchanged formalities, and Miro teleported away, oddly lacking in the gestures or vocalizations that should have accompanied a spell. With his business concluded, he returned to gather the others before leaving town. They found Broken Tusk keeping a low profile in a cabbage patch; with him in tow, they began their trek back to the inn where they had left Caelan, using the Rod of Emergency Teleport to speed their way. Two days after leaving Hikon, they finally made it back to the inn in Shizuoka, a little past noon. While Raito paid the innkeeper, who was obviously mere moments away from having a nervous breakdown, Broken Tusk, Vol and Ridley went upstairs to see Caelan. They found him in the middle of a messy room, surrounded by his five drake charges. Upon seeing them, Caelan stormed outside; his mood could be described as foul at best. Broken Tusk took his drake outside, leaving the elves to watch the other four. Caelan, in a grouchy fit, tended to Kirsikka's shoes and hooves, while Broken Tusk discovered that Bahpu had apparently learned to use some words, albiet hodge-podge ones of no real language. When finished with Kirsikka, Caelan promptly went to take a bath. Once he had finished tending to the bill, Raito sat down with Ragoom and Yomiel at a table. Takuetsu commented on having a portentious feeling, and told Raito to be on guard. Minutes passed, and Takuetsu remarked that there was someone else with them in the room. Raito quietly warned the other men present, and they waited tensely. Eventually, a figure appeared directly behind Raito's shoulder, wearing dark armour and a mask that concealed their face entirely. Raito, at first, was confrontational and tried to goad the figure into battle, in order to confirm his suspicion that the person was another bearer of a Blackblade; Takuetsu forcefully demanded that he cease, as he had an idea of who the other sword was, and should he be correct, it would be more advantageous for them to act politely and not provoke them. The masked figure introduced themselves as Ko, and explained that they had already done the group a great service, namely preventing locals from reporting Caelan and having him arrested. To that end, Ko requested, some would say demanded, recompense: the group would travel with him to an undisclosed location by Teleport, and assist in some unspecified manner in a nebulous task. With some provoking, he further added that the goal was to take something precious of Lord Miro's, something that he moved about often and that had to be taken quickly before it could be moved again, but would not elucidate further to the great frustration of everyone involved. Eventually, Raito said that he would consider it, but would have to speak to his companions; Ko agreed to give them an hour, and told him to decide who he would take with him, as the spell would only allow him to take six passengers. With that, Ko shrouded himself in invisibility again. Raito rounded up the scattered travelers, sending Broken Tusk to interrupt Caelan's bath. Everyone gathered together, and Raito informed them all of the meeting he had just had. Caelan, still in a surly mood, said that he had in fact met the masked figure before: he had appeared twice while he had been left in the inn, and had displayed the same blunt, rude manner. Takuetsu mentioned, though only to Raito of course, that the person likely was the bearer of a sword named Yatsuatari, who he described as emotional and prone to deep-seated grudges and delusion. Since Ko seemed to possess a burning desire to destroy Lord Miro, Takuetsu theorized that Yatsuatari had spent some time focusing Ko's wrath on him and his sword. Until Osamu's death, she would be unlikely to lash against them unless given a reason, and since her plans have always had a tendency to be short-sighted and lack finesse, she probably didn't have too many tricks up her sleeve. He added that Yatsuatari prefers to be weilded by women, being a female herself, and so Ko was more than likely a woman. Caelan fumed and was generally unpleasant, so Ridley, using a magic cooking implement, conjured a high-quality sandwich for him, which he later followed with an assortment of alcoholic beverages which managed to gradually improve the Northlander's mood while everyone discussed their plan of action. Eventually, they agreed that, though it looked like a painfully obvious trap, it was still probably more advantageous to walk into it and see what they could gain. Ko returned after an hour had passed; Raito told her that he would assist her, and would bring Caelan, Ragoom, Broken Tusk and their two animals, shrunk through magic to about half their normal sizes. The others would stay behind. Ko seemed unparticular about who came, so the group bid a fast farewell to Yomiel, the elves and the drakes, and huddled up while Ko cast a spell using a staff. When they had finished teleporting, they found themselves in complete blackness. Ko quickly began to move off; the others tried to stop her, to get more information, but she off-handedly mentioned that their job was to cause a distraction, and that she would teleport them back if they were around when she left. She turned invisible again, and a brief flash of light lit the room as a door opened and slammed shut as she left. With the brief illumination, they found that they were standing in some sort of pantry or food storage. They heard a muffled sound from outside and crouched down; a hobgoblin opened the door and peered in before calling out to someone else that everything seemed fine in here and that he didn't know what that banging noise had been. The door closed behind him, and Caelan started to panic. Everyone quickly surmised their location: they were in a base somewhere in the Hobgoblin Province. Raito began to outline a plan, but before he could explain it fully, Broken Tusk shrugged and mentioned that they should do their job before turning himself into a megaloceros and charging through the door, shattering it. Raito, Caelan and Ragoom, unsure of what Broken Tusk's intentions were but certain that they were not going to run out into a bloodbath, used their Hats of Disguise to make themselves appear as hobgoblins themselves before hiding lacklusterly in the storeroom. Broken Tusk found himself in a narrow hallway that branched out in a cross shape, with a set of stairs at its center. He had little time for investigation before another door opened; a couple hobgoblins stepped out, followed by a Yetoman who looked over to see the giant deer standing down the hall and couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity. Unsheathing his curved blade, the Yetoman strode amusedly towards the animal, laughing and asking the hobgoblins who had managed to do this. The others did not need to see his face to know that it was Mako. Broken Tusk charged forward as best he could in the tight hallway, trying to act like a confused animal. His path took him past Mako, who took a lazy swing at the passing buck that left a vicious gash in his side. He clambered into the far room, Mako wandering behind, slicing at him with no particular urgency yet still managing to grievously wound the druid. As a last effort, Broken Tusk used a spell to meld into the floor, escaping from further deadly harm. Meanwhile, the hobgoblins, who had taken orders from Mako to investigate the area, discovered the rest of the group, hastily disguised as hobgoblins and standing beside a miniaturized horse and mastodon. Raito did his best to play off the animals as a juvenile prank that he and his other fellow recruits were committing on a dare; the real hobgoblins did not seem to know what to make of this, and so all those gathered waited for Mako to enter. Raito repeated his story, and feigned ignorance in regards to the "magic deer". It seemed as though Mako knew something was fishy, but couldn't quite confirm what it was; he gave them an option to explain themselves to the generals, who were apparently upstairs, which Raito accepted. The animals were led into some jail cells down the hall, and the three disguised men were led up two stories, where they were placed in what seemed to be an empty conference hall of sorts. Under guard, they were told to wait. Broken Tusk, who had secretly removed himself from the floor long enough to change shape into that of an earth elemental before reinserting himself into the stone walls, followed behind, unable to see or hear but able to gather from the vibrations of footsteps where to go. Taking up a position in the wall, he waited for a signal. Eventually, the door opened again, and the now-familiar figure of Osamu Miro walked in, along with Mako. He dismissed the hobgoblins, then rather evenly asked for an explanation as to how they had gotten in. Raito tried to maintain his earlier story, but Osamu cut him off and told him to stop, calling him out by name. Since his disguise was obviously ruined, Raito reverted his disguise back to his usual glamour of a nice, clean outfit; the others remained in disguise. He asked them repeatedly how they managed to get into the hobgoblin high command building unnoticed. Raito gave a flippant answer, and all others remained silent. The conversation continued, and it quickly became apparent that Osamu was listening not only to their words, but also to their thoughts, and further, he could speak directly to their minds as well. Raito took this opportunity to begin thinking a stream of questions that, while he wanted answered, he wouldn't ask out loud, since he would look foolish asking obvious questions about Osamu's plans. For their parts, Caelan was screaming internally, Ragoom managed to block out Osamu's mental intrusion, and no one but Raito said anything aloud. With increasing frustration, Osamu continued to try and gather information from the group, until eventually Broken Tusk mentioned a masked figure. With a look of sudden realization, Osamu teleported away with no word or gesture. Barely a moment later, a string of what was undoubtedly Infernal profanity was broadcast into the minds of everyone present. This continued for a few seconds, then fell silent, though it appeared that Mako continued to hear it longer than everyone else. The group tried to run away, but even with the screaming apparently in his head, Mako still stopped them. He composed himself, then asked, in a demanding sort of way, for their assistance. He explained that Ko, who they were very aware of, had just used them to get in and cover her while she apparently kidnapped a young girl named Junko, as an act against Osamu. Now, Osamu was in a rage and had left Mako stranded in Hobgoblin Province without a teleport ride, where he wouldn't be particularly helpful in finding her. Knowing that they could obviously teleport and apparently possessed some sort of mystical talent for finding hidden things, he wanted their assistance before Osamu, in a fit, did something untoward. He would, in exchange, let them out of hobgoblin territory. Caelan, more than willing to work with someone who would get them out of enemy territory, agreed for the group. They went back down to claim the animals, and used the Rod of Emergency Teleport. Unfortunately, the rod took them barely 8 miles out of the building. Mako was unimpressed, but stayed with them regardless and didn't seem to outwardly show any suspicion of treachery on the part of the group. With Mako in tow, the group walked south towards Yeto. The gensui was commanding and contrary, much to Raito's deep dismay; he openly derided Broken Tusk, but for whatever reason, seemed to get along well with Caelan, which bothered Raito further. At Mako's request, they traveled through the night, stopping only in the morning for the spellcasters to prepare their magic. They used the rod again, and this time found themselves somewhere in the northern reaches of Yeto, outside of hobgoblin territory. They discussed their next plans; Mako knew that, since Ko had been using staves that she could not be charging on her own, she must have a wizard accomplice somewhere. After discussing their options, the group decided to go question the Yoshida's wizard first. Category:Banishment of the Blackblades